Following up with our Speed Matcher

MAPIC 2011 opened with a bang, and one of the highlights of the first day was clearly the morning’s Speed Matching session, which drew a full house. Eddy Jimenez, Vice President of International Development & Logistics at Kahala was third to the podium. He left the audience wanting more as he spoke of the group’s brand Cold Stone Creamery, a high-quality ice cream parlour concept.

After the networking session was over, I caught up with Jimenez on the mouthwatering Kahala stand (Riviera 35.02) to find out how the session went from his perspective.

MIPIMWorld: From an audience perspective, it looked like the presentation went well. What was your impression?

Eddy Jimenez: It was a lot of fun. I was pleased to see so many people there. I have to say, the real challenge is actually just keeping the speech to seven minutes. When you’re listening to others talk, seven minutes seems like plenty of time, but once you’re up there, the time flies by. I was only part-way through my presentation and I realised I had just three minutes left!

MIPIMWorld: Your video took up a full minute – why did you decide to use it, when you could have had more talking time?

Jimenez: I felt that the video was essential to give the audience a taste of what it’s really like to visit one of our stores. The video I showed really does capture the fact that people make memories in our stores, and anyone looking at becoming a Master Franchisee really needs to know that about the brand. Cold Stone Creamery is not just about ice cream – it’s about the experience you have in the parlour.

MIPIMWorld: So, what did you get out of the networking session afterwards?

Jimenez: I got pretty much what I was hoping for, actually! I came away with good leads and about 5 other solid contacts. I’ll be meeting with all three of the leads while I’m here at MAPIC, to really get to know the people involved. The networking time after Speed Matching was also great.

We’ll be inviting all three leads to come for a meeting of about an hour and a half on our stand. We prefer to do it here because we have everything we need to really show them what we’re about. We have videos, banner, lots of visuals.

MIPIMWorld: I have to say, the only thing you don’t have are tasters…

Jimenez: (laughs) Yes, I know! When we do trade fairs in the US, we set up a downsized model shop on our stand. People can feel what it’s like to visit one of our stores, and we often have tasters. It’s harder to do that when we travel, and this is our first stand at MAPIC, so we’re learning what works, what doesn’t. If we take a stand here again, we’ll definitely try to re-create the store experience. MAPIC is where really big deals get done, so we’re interested in investing more time and effort in our presence here in the future.

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